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Category Archives: Fantasy

Take the following list and stick it on your website, then add yourself to the list, preferably in alphabetical order. That way, I will be able to track it across the web from back links, and can add each new blog to my roll as it comes along. So take this list, add it to your blog, and add a link to your blog on it.

39) Summoned to Tourney, Mercedes Lackey and Ellen Guon. Sometimes earthquakes happen and sometimes the bad guys try and make them happen. A story from the beginning of the Bedlam Bard series and one of the good ones.

40) Wheels of Fire, Mercedes Lackey and Mark Shepherd. How I wish it were true that elves were there to rescue kids who were being abused. It would make the world a better place. Here the elves are not only trying to save a child from abuse, they are also taking on a radical religious cult. Another reason why I have rejected organized religion; there are far too many people in the world you use it to justify horror, abuse and violence against others. Oops, better not get onto that tangent…

41) Fire Me Up, Katie MacAlister. So not the book to read after a book about child abuse. It was just too fluffy and light. Needless to say; didn’t enjoy it much.

42) Sacred Ground, Mercedes Lackey. Clearly I needed to go back to one of my fave authors. This was about environmental and aboriginal issues. For not being Native, I think Misty did a great job. Of course neither am I so all I can say it that it felt good to me.

35) Bloodfever, Karen Marie Moning. Not all Sidhe are good Sidhe. Heck, not even the good ones are all that great, as MacKayla Lane has found out. This is the 2nd in a series that is really shaping up well. Lots of twists and turns, with interesting characters.

36) Every Secret Thing, Laura Lippman. After reading The Last Place, I was keen for another Lippman book, but this one just didn’t resonate with me. Not sure why. It was good, with lots of twists, but something just… I dunno.

37) By a Spider’s Thread, Laura Lippman. I enjoyed this one much better than the last. Maybe it was because I already knew the characters, though one of the people in Every Secret Thing did make an appearance here. Like the last one, there were plenty of twists.

38 ) Hound the Falcon, Judith Tarr. When mysteries are leaving you feeling a little flat, do a switch! Pick up a fantasy novel – in this case a trilogy (all in one book so I’ll count them as 1) set in the Crusade period. With elves. Nice elves. And evil churchfolk (and some nice ones too). And kings and princes and saints. A nice break from reality…

28 ) Wolf Moon, Charles de Lint. While pulling out my Wrede books I discovered this tale by one of my all time favourite authors (and a heck of a bodhran player as I discovered when I stumbled upon him one night in a pub in Ottawa). Not my fave book of his, but still good.

29) Love is Murder, Linda Palmer. A murder mystery set in the world of soap operas. Well, I like mysteries, but not a fan of soap operas (despite my continuing to watch CSI: Miami), still this was more fun than I thought. Quirky characters and silly situations. Nice.

30) The Last Place, Laura Lippman. Was still in a mystery mood, so picked this one up from my ‘found in my personal library’ pile. This was a wonderful book; Tess Monaghan is definitely in a mess this time with court-ordered counselling and then a job searching domestic abuse cases. Cases that involve far more than meets the eye. Fascinating twists and turns, and bizarre characters.

31) Dead Man Rising, Lilith Saintcrow. When I first stumbled over the Dante Valentine series, I admit I sneered a little. Both the name chosen for the main character and the name of the author just seemed so fanciful… but I stopped sneering fast. Affectations aside, this is an excellent series. This is the second in the series and here Dante is trying to drown her sorrow (sorry, not giving away what happened in the first book) in work. Unfortunately she gets pulled into a situation where she has to deal with the worst of her childhood. And a truly horrible childhood it was… If you thought pedophiles were bad, wait till you meet the people who tainted Dante’s early life.

32) The Devil Inside, Jenna Black. What a cool premise: voluntary demon possession in order to do good works. And when it isn’t voluntary, you call in our heroine, exorcist Morgan Kingsley. When Morgan discovers she has been forcibly possessed by a demon, a demon who doesn’t want to be in her any more than she wants him to be, the two of them have to work together (sort of) in order to try and figure a way out of the mess. And their ally? A demon-possessed man who is very much into sadism.

33) The Vampire of New York, Lee Hunt. When I was reading a lot of fanfiction (still reading lots, but of a different genre) there was this writer who always got to me. Her stories started out wonderful and got better and better and then… over. She came up with great premises for stories, and was a wizard at writing the beginnings and middles, but when it came to endings she fizzled. This book is very similar – I was fascinated, entranced, spellbound… and then it was just done. Learnt a lot about NYC during the Civil War, though. Just wish the conclusion had been as promising as the rest of the book.

34) Dog Days, John Levitt. Now, I am a cat person… but the ‘dog’ in this book is very likeable. Of course, the focus is on the human, who is definitely someone I can understand. Not that I can play jazz guitar ot anything, but I do understand that whole ‘you have such potential… if you’d only….’ scenario. Been hearing that one my whole life… Anyway, interesting characters and situations. I also enjoyed the fact that it was set in a truly believable world; our own, just with some people who have a little bit more umph to them.

The last two books are part of the pile I picked up on the weekend – yes I have another stack to add to my as yet unread stack. Going to put them aside though; have to get the library books read first. And maybe even take a break for a bit (also got DVDs to watch).